Battle Rap Dictionary
List of battle rap vocab A Angle: '''A method of verbal attack. B '''Bars: Raps in general. Bitchmade: Insult suggesting a lack of toughness or courage prized among battle rappers. Body bag (also body): Used as a verb, the undisputable domination of one's rival. C Choke: When a rapper runs out of lines prematurely either because he/she forgot pre-written bars or fails to freestyle fluidly. Not to be confused with a stumble. D Disrespect: A personal attack marked by particular invasiveness or egregious disregard for sensitive details in a rival's offstage life. Illnesses, deaths, and the legal troubles of a rival or his/her loved ones are popular focuses of disrespectful attacks. Don Demarco: The DJ for URL events. If a line gets lots of crowd reaction, he played an air horn sound effect and plugged in his DJ name afterwards. Whether people liked it or not, he did it so much that it became the standard response for hot lines; it even got people from both URL and other battle leagues to shout it themselves. It is sampled from a Jay Z song called "Can't Knock the Hustle." E F G Ghostwrite: To write the verses of another who is the presumed or credited author. While the practice assumes the mastery of the ghostwriter, performing ghostwritten lyrics is generally frowned upon in the battle rap community. Gun Bar (also gun line): Bars about guns and related firepower and/or accessories. H I J K L M N Name Flip: Tactic wherein a battler lampoons his/her opponent's name with witty wordplay. (Example: "That's why you'll never make it big, cuz you're not Juicy, Couture" - O'fficial) '''Nice:' Compliment said of a particularly skillful rapper. O P Personal: A verbal attack highlighting details (often embarrassing) of a rival's offstage life. Promotional (also promo): A rap battle wherein opponents agree prior to forgo formal judging. Battle rappers might pursue such an arrangement if they fear a loss would sully their record or if an opponent is sufficiently junior to them as to constitute a "step down" in their battling trajectory. Prop: 1. A physical accessory, including another person, used to assist execution of one's verse. Incriminating photos of a rival, for example, would be a popular prop. 2. An accolade or point of praise cited in honor of another. Punchline: A line delivered as the climax to a joke or series of setup bars. Q R Rebuttal: Bars delivered to counter something an opponent said earlier in the battle. Given the inability to foresee such comments, rebuttals are often delivered freestyle. Remix: The repeat of a line in a varied, embellished fashion in order to bolster its impact. (Signature move of Hitman Holla.) S Scheme: An extended measure of bars executed under a particular theme or narrative arc. Attacks wherein rappers assume the identity or universe of pop culture or literary characters are popular schemes. Setup: A series of bar executed as a lead-in to a verbal payoff, or punchline. Slow it down: A cue to rivals and/or the audience to reconsider a bar just delivered. Such reconsideration often unveils deeply hidden wordplay or double meaning in a line. (A signature tactic of Conceited.) Stumble: A brief verbal misstep on the part of a rapper. T U V W X Y Z